What's So Funny 'Bout Dreams, Love, and Your Ninja Way?
by Zancrow
Summary: AU. The Hyuuga Clan will not accept Hinata as the heiress; the village will not accept Naruto as a human being. As Hinata attempts to help a boy she doesn't understand why everyone despises; the Rookie 9 are thrust upon a world were "ninja" and "killer" are synonyms, and hope is all but lost. A more realistic reimagining/"remake" of Naruto, not a darkfic per say. NaruHina SasuSaku


**What's So Funny 'Bout Dreams, Love, and Your Ninja Way?**

**Rating: **T (will be M starting Chapter One, this is the Prologue)

**Pairings: **NaruHina, SasuSaku, and others…

**Genre: **Romance, Horror, Realistic(ish) Action

**Disclaimer: **Desafortunadamente, Naruto no es mío. (Spanish FTW)

**Notes:**

FYI: If you just want to read the story and don't care much about my "how this story came to be" notes, just skip down to the first "-0-" thingy. If not…

This… idea of sorts has gotten stuck to my cranium for a bit, regarding Hollywood's recent love affair with "realistic" superheroes and such. Some of these work while others don't, but their selling point of being more identifiable is not lost to us as an audience. As such, I began to ponder how such a take on a franchise would work with an anime/manga.

My first reaction: "It doesn't work!".

Really, it was very hard for it to be "realistic" while still being identifiable with the series it was based on. Think about it… A "realistic" One Piece? A young Jack Sparrow who can stretch? Bleach? Even Hollywood's having trouble with it. Dragon Ball… erm, let's not go there…

So, for Naruto, this is what I came up with…

-0-

"I-It has been seven years since the Cold War began, as the five Villages found that their peace treaty made to stop the death toll produced by the Great War could not be realistically kept. Our village has, d-during this time, prepared its armed forces not for another war, but for inner peace keeping and self-progress… T-This is the period we're currently in, Father."

"Good," was the response given, not sounding as genuinely approving as it would otherwise be expected. Hiashi Hyuuga did not even bother to look up from the book he had been reading; indirectly suggesting that eye-contact with her daughter was not something either of them needed at the moment.

This was something Hinata had come to expect, the lack of any sort of contact even, but she was still surprised he had asked her to attend the dojo with him. Her father usually attended the dojo only by himself or with his youngest daughter, Hanabi, rather than with her. She couldn't really say she didn't understand why. The Hyuuga dojo, or rather, the main dojo was a near sacred place for her clan; given the historical detail that had been painstakingly given to the wall paintings and roof, the family crests and decorations. Furthermore, the place just felt rich in culture, the Hyuuga culture, which they all took pride in as the biggest and strongest family in Konoha. Given, as they were the closest Konoha had to royalty.

Since it was so off-limits to her, albeit indirectly since no one had ever directly told her not to enter, Hinata always felt pressured when she was within these walls. No other place in the Hyuuga household, save her father's room which she had yet to set foot in, gave her such a feeling of uneasiness and fear. When she was called to meet her father there, she had thought he had wanted to spar, giving her another reason to worry. However, his real motive was to test her on topics regarding her academic progress.

Fitting, as today was the examination.

The sound of a turning page caused her to involuntarily stiffen, as her eyes shifted from the hard wood floor towards her seated father a few feet from her. "Chakra, explain it in detail," he spoke, eyes never leaving the text.

"C-Chakra," she spoke before she stopped, taking the briefest of breathes. She could not keep stuttering in her responses. "Chakra is the basic of all jutsu. It is an energy that resonates within everyone, created by the mixture of the physical energy present in every cell of the body with the spiritual energy that dwells within individuals which manifests itself and is strengthened through training and experience. Once both energies are molded, chakra travels the circulatory system similarly to blood, whereupon it can be extracted out of any of the…," she momentarily stopped, searching her head for the number. She felt as her father raised his view from the text to her, to which she blurted out the first number she had going for her. "…T-The three hundred and sixty-one chakra points on the human body… Father."

Hiashi eyed her for a moment, causing her to be the one to avoid direct eye-contact with him. She preferred to stare at the wall, at the ceiling, at her feet, anything but him. "Correct. However, you left out significant amounts of detail."

"I felt as adding anything else would sound redundant, as chakra is a mysterious subject even for the most gifted of shinobi. All of which I stated is the exact amount of data available on chakra that has been scientifically proven as legitimate…," she spoke, her eyes glued to her father's feet.

"And that too is correct," he added as he stood up, causing her elder daughter to inwardly breathe of relief given that she had been unsure as to whether he had been testing her or not. "Everything else aside from what you said is unproven, contradicts something else or downright false. Do remember your exact words if asked and," he stopped, turning towards her, "when you mention three hundred and sixty-one, do so with authority. You sounded as if you were asking me."

"Understood…"

"Very well, you may enter."

For a moment, she would have asked, but then realized she was not being spoken to. Her father had turned his gaze towards the door, which at his command and approval, was opened by the youngest of the Hyuuga household. "Father, it's time," Hanabi spoke with the authority Hinata believes her father was referring to.

"Yes, indeed it is," Her, their father spoke with a nod. As he turned from Hinata to Hanabi, the softening of his features not lost upon either child, he gave his eldest daughter one last remark. "Hinata, do remember that as much as you do know the topics, half of the passing grade of the examination is the jutsu. Your Byakugan better be up to the required level."

Hinata gave her father a nod, excusing herself from the dojo at the same time, since she needed to be elsewhere at the moment. As she exited herself, she made brief eye contact with her sister, but neither sibling gave any indication of noticing.

-0-

Hinata twirled her fingers, playing with the loose fibers on her jacket due to so much usage during her training. It didn't make her relax, but at the very least it kept her mind occupied. The carriage she was being taken in was of the higher class ones, usually meant to be used by her father or grandfather. However, since her enrollment on the academy had long been public news to pretty much everyone, Hiashi had been making the self-effort to promote her as the Hyuuga heiress as to give her all the class such a role entails. It was not lost on her that were it not for outside pressure, he would never consider her as such, given the fact that such treatment was usually reserved for Hanabi.

Regardless, Hinata knew what it all meant. This was something her father was forced, by tradition and honor, to do. He did not believe in her. He did not believe she could graduate. Hardly anyone ever did. Each year, out of thirty or so candidates, only one or two pass the examinations, and those one or two are inexplicably removed from their active duty within the next few days. No one knew why, but rumors circulated Konoha like wildfire. It made her more nervous.

Furthermore, she was now twelve years old, at the youngest age one could take the examination. Her sister was seven, and probably had better chances of passing than her. If she failed, she would be deemed unworthy of being an heiress. No, she would be deemed unworthy of being a member of the Main House.

And everyone knew that the Main House and the Branch House were as different as sunlight and darkness. No one from the Branch House ever made it to the title of shinobi, to be able to rightfully call yourself a shinobi and wear the Leaf's headband. No one ever did… except Neji.

She pushed that though out of her mind as soon as it came, trying to instead focus on the bumps of the dirt road as the carriage moved along, edging ever closer to the final destination. That made her chest heavy, and she opted to instead look out the window towards the sky.

"A bit nervous, I presume?"

Her eyes darted back towards the carriage, where in front of her was seated her long-standing bodyguard Kou Hyuuga. His eyes where fixated on her, causing her to give a smile in return and a light blush. "Is it that obvious?"

"Everyone gets nervous during this day, even I was not excluded from the pressure when I took the examination," Kou spoke at her warmly, giving her that little ounce of reassurance she so desperately needed yet obtained none from her father. "You're classmates are probably feeling it too, so you should just try to relax the best you can, go over your intended techniques in your head a few times in order to better execute them when the time come, and have some faith in yourself."

"Y-You're right," she stuttered as a response, inwardly hating that little habit. "I mean, I know that I can-," her voice was stopped by a sudden halt of the carriage, as a strong arm positioning itself at her waist. As she looked, she spoke up. "Kou… I'm not a little girl anymore; you don't have to hold me every time the carriage suddenly stops."

"Sorry, force of habit," he mentioned as he activated his Byakugan almost instinctively. "As for the sudden stop, you needn't worry. It's just some trash that got in the way, nothing serious."

Even with his reassurance, her own Byakugan also activated itself. She knew she shouldn't be using it, given the fact that the examination would start within the hour and she should theoretically save as much chakra as possible, but she had felt something. Someone.

It was there that she saw it. The carriage driver was arguing alongside two other grown men, all shouting obscenities that she could very well hear even without chakra infused ears, all at a young boy who was apparently standing upon a nearby roof, laughing at the trio. Her Byakugan also picked up signs of used explosive tags, an emptied glue bottle, red paint, some rope, nails and an awkwardly dented scrap of iron with an impressive amount of bubblegum stuck to it. _'What?'_

While she tried to figure out how all those things came together, no doubt some of them having caused the sudden stop, she noticed one of the men arguing with the boy moved to position a ladder to reach the roof. At this Hinata felt a sudden urge to go out and stop the grown men from picking on a young boy who looked no older that she, but that thought was quickly eradicated as she saw the boy stand firmly in front of the climbing man, legs spread and, in a swift moment, pulling down his pants and underwear while grabbing onto…

"Milady," Kou interrupted her sight as it was replaced by his face, in all sorts of ways. "You shouldn't exhaust your Byakugan right now; much less you catch sight of the profanity that is taking place just outside our carriage."

Hinata felt her face flush, heated by his gaze and wording. "I-I didn't mean to see anything… I didn't r-really see anything… B-But it looked like… like if he was…"

Kou didn't bother to answer as the sound of the man cursing was answer enough, causing a small smile onto his lips. "There's no need to think of this anything further. The least about that thing said, the better."

At this, she understood.

Naruto Uzumaki.

"The embodiment of misfortune for the Leaf, he is an omen which we all must stay away from. What he seeks most is attention, and he is willing to do everything and anything in order to gain it. We cannot allow ourselves to be fooled, as we must not give it. By the mercy of our Hokage, he has been allowed to live in the Leaf, despite the fact that he is the reincarnation of the Fox Demon which took the life of our Fourth Hokage and a great deal of shinobi twelve years ago. Despite looking like one of us, he is not. He is not human, he is a monster. Should he ever cross the line and go against our way, he will be eliminated. Finally, only here can I openly speak about him, as I am not to speak of him at any other moment outside of these walls."

…When asked during the examination about Naruto Uzumaki, that was the correct response.

-0-

The Author Rants About:

Hinata Hyuuga

The Hyuuga heiress, the shrinking violet, the female underdog, and one of the most polarizing characters in the Naruto fandom. Either you love her for her determination and kindness, thus feeling she deserves to be the main female character (boo Sakura), hate her for being whiny and having little character development (Sakura FTW) or, like me, see her as a grounded character with much potential, who honestly works very well without having to take pairings into account.

Hinata here is pretty much the same person as canon. She lost her mother when the latter gave birth to Hanabi. At one point she was considered the correct heiress to the Hyuuga, but given Hanabi's progress and Hinata's lack of it, the decision is much less clear. Hiashi still considers her a possible candidate, though her failure or success in the examination will be a major factor in this decision. While her father gave Hanabi the attention she didn't get, Hinata was raised and taken care of by her bodyguard Kou Hyuuga, and would usually go on play-dates with her elder cousin Neji Hyuuga.

Uses a martial arts style known as the Gentle Fist, which uses a combination of blows to the pressure points of the body in conjunction with emitting chakra from the chakra points in the finger tips to shut off the chakra points of the opponent. She has, like every other child in the village, been warned against socializing with Naruto Uzumaki; to which she can't understand how such a cheerful and hardworking boy could ever be deemed as anything other than admirable.

This is Hinata Hyuuga at the start of her ninja career, however dark and deadly the road may be.


End file.
